Shirt



J. L. SHAW Jam. 28, QB,

SHIRT Filed July 28I 1954 Wvg/vm@ Jr-JHN Lo DGE SHAW' Patented Jan. 28,1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Application July 28, 1934, Serial No.737,372 In Great Britain July 31, 1933 1 Claim.

This invention relates to shirts mainly for sports use, by means ofwhich braces or a belt worn to support the wearers trousers or a skirtcan be concealed from View.

The object of the invention is to provide a shirt of this kind of simpledesign and which requires no adjusting or manipulation by the wearer.

For the above purpose, the shirt has a dependingexternal shallow pleatat and around the waist, concealing, by extending over, slits throughwhich the buttonholed tabs of braces Worn beneath the shirt can extendto the buttons of trousers. According to the invention, the pleat isformed permanently in the material of the shirt by being secured, forexample by stitching, along the upper border to the body portion of theshirt.

The provision of an overhanging pleat around the waist of a shirt isadvantageous apart from enabling braces or a belt to be concealed. Thethree thicknesses oi material around the waist formed by the foldprotect the lumbar regions oi the wearer and if the trousers or othergarments are self-supporting or are supported by a belt the foldconceals the top of the garment and imparts a neat appearance to thewearers apparel.

The invention is illustrated by way of example on the accompanyingdrawing, in which:-

Fig. 1 is a front View of a shirt, and

Fig. 2 is a dodged section through the shirt on line 2 2 at the back andline 23--2a at the front.

a is a shirt of usual sports pattern except that an excess of materialis provided in the direction ofthe length of the body portion of theshirt.

This excess length of material is folded into a pleat b around the waistportion of the shirt a,

and such pleat b is rendered permanent by a line of fine stitching caround the top border thereof.

Slits d are formed in the material of the shirt a beneath the pleat bthrough which slits the tabs of braces may be passed for securing totrouser buttons.

A buttonholed tab e shown in dotted lines on Fig. l may also be providedattached to the shirt a by sewing centrally of the front thereof beneaththe pleat b. This tab e when secured to a trouser button will preventthe shirt a from working upwards owing to movement of the wearer.

In the case of a knitted garment, alternatively to rendering the pleatpermanent by stitching, the excess of material may be secured at theupper border by interkmtting juxta-opposed rows of stitches in theseveral thicknesses of material, along the line c Fig. l. Such a processis known as grafting.

The pleat may be constricted at the bottom edge by an elastic band ormay merely hang free over the waist band of the trousers, although forappearance sake it preferably more or less snugly ts the wearer.

The invention is obviously applicable to ladies and childrens shirts.

I claim:

In a shirt garment, a body portion having a three-ply transverse pleatformed in the material of and at the waist of said body portion, saidthree-ply pleat having slits in the innermost ply and concealed by theouter plies thereof, and stitches extending through the three plies ofsaid pleat at the upper fold thereof and above said slits.

JOHN LODGE SHAW.

